3D novel photovoltaic sensors for in-situ structural health monitoring (SHM) of composite materials using hybrid quantum dots (QDS)

Abstract

This paper reports the work of developing an efficient 3D photovoltaic (PV) sensor using carbon nanotube yarns (CNYs) as both working and counter electrodes. CNYs consist of numerous carbon nanotubes with the advantages of excellent mechanical properties, high electrical conductivity and outstanding flexibility. These advantages enable sensor flexibility and significantly improve the charge transfer speed. In addition to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), quantum dots (QDs) have recently drawn attention in photoenergy conversion systems due to a high absorption coefficient, tunable band gap and multiple exciton generation (MEG) effects [1, 2]. Herein, this report proposes to apply np-TiO2/mp-TiO2/CdS/CdSe/N719 hybrid structure to realize both MEG effects and multiple electron transmission paths. The reported energy conversion efficiency (6.03%) with the solid state PV sensor is ten-times higher than that of the metal-cored wire-shaped PV sensor we published before, which is even higher than the liquid cell with a conversion efficiency of 5.80% reported elsewhere [3, 4]. This article also discusses surface characterization of nanowires and the functionalization of solid-solid interfacial properties. The 3D PV sensor construction is the basis of ongoing work towards embedded smart composites with intrinsic triboluminescent/mechanoluminescent (TL/ML) features. Copyright 2014. Used by the Society of the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering with permission.

Publication Title

International SAMPE Technical Conference

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